


Foundations

by orphan_account



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Jim buys a house this is just about Jim buying a house for him and spock and just him being sappy, M/M, Post-Five Year Mission, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 09:52:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10384032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "You bought yourself a what?"The look of surprise on Spock's face is almost comical but Jim doesn't laugh. He clears his throat, shifts his weight from one foot to the other, looks down, then looks back at Spock. The surprise morphs into suspicion."It's a house," Jim repeats.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was in my wips for sooo long and I only touched it again today

"You bought yourself a what?"

 

The look of surprise on Spock's face is almost comical but Jim doesn't laugh. He clears his throat, shifts his weight from one foot to the other, looks down, then looks back at Spock. The surprise morphs into suspicion.

 

"It's a house," Jim repeats.

 

Spock doesn't say anything. He just stands in the doorway, brows knit together. Jim's anxiety spikes with each second that Spock doesn't respond. He then does what he always does when he's nervous; he starts babbling.

 

"It's technically mine—and I know I should have consulted you first but I think I did a good job—there's a garden and everything and it's in a good neighborhood and not too far away from Starfleet—and look you just—you can't just stand there and not say anything just come in already."

 

Granted, maybe he shouldn't have told Spock what he did seconds after Spock came through the front door. He's now settled on Jim's sofa with a cup of tea in his hands, his Vulcan robes wrinkled from travel. Jim startles at the realization that he hasn't even kissed Spock yet—fucking hell he’s _awful—_ and he leans in to fix it when Spock finally speaks,

 

"Why did you purchase another residence when you have one that's more than adequate?"

 

"Because um…well."

 

He can feel his face burning up as his earlier bravado fades, and Spock senses it. His hand moves to his knee, his thumb drawing calming circles on Jim's kneecap, and Jim takes a deep breath. He was a starship captain, he can do this.

 

"Because this one's mine. And I wanted one for us."

 

* * *

 

The flat Starfleet gave him when he became captain of the Enterprise has its own charms. But it's small and only has one bedroom. It's a bachelor's flat and Jim isn't a bachelor anymore. He's married and they don't even live with each other which is frankly _insane_. Spock lives a few streets away; he only comes by during the weekend. Living apart may have worked during the five-year mission (and really, it only worked because even though they technically had separate rooms there was only a bathroom between them and Spock spent the nights at Jim's anyway), but Jim's getting sick of coming home from Starfleet with only an empty flat to greet him.

 

He bought the house because Bones told him that was the adult thing to do and even though Jim's in his mid-thirties he still doesn't know what that means so he asks others what he should do. It was originally Pike's job to answer Jim's stupid questions but Pike's been dead for a few years now. Jim hadn't even been able to ask him whether or not dating his First Officer was a good idea. He'd had to figure that out on his own (okay, with a bit of help from Bones and the others) and Jim thinks he did okay. Spock wears his ring on a chain around his neck, and before that they'd regularly exchanged saliva and other body fluids so yeah Jim supposes that he did the long term relationship part correctly.

 

It's like he's following a check list. How to be an adult: have a great career, pay taxes, get married. The same things his brother did. Buying a house probably should have come before the marriage part but he'd had to improvise what with living in a starship for years, not to mention he and Spock had hectic schedules. Spock doesn't even get to see what Jim bought until three days later when Jim drives them to the neighborhood, Spock sneaking glances at him every now and then.

 

It's not a very large house. Two floors with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a tiny room that Jim doesn't know what to do with (maybe turn it into a meditation room for Spock?). It's old fashioned as well, the style dating back to early 22nd century but the computer within the walls of the house is the latest model, programmed by Jim himself to replicate the temperature of the Enterprise. The back wall of what will probably be the dining area is all windows, bathing Spock in the mid-morning sunlight.

 

He tries to look at it through Spock's eyes while he waits for Spock's response. They're the first people to live here. That's what the real estate agent had assured Jim, her three mouths smiling at him brightly when she'd toured him and told him about the neighborhood.

 

It's the garden that sold it for him. Jim had looked at it, pictured Spock meditating by the small fountain, and told the real estate agent that he'd take it.

 

"Well?"

 

"It will serves its purpose," Spock says and Jim frowns at him, irritated by the answer, before he realizes that Spock is _teasing_ him. He's pleased. Elated, even. Warmth, admiration, and fondness bubble in his part of the bond, gently nudging against Jim's mind. Desire flares in Jim and Spock raises his eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement.

 

"You know. We could. Christen this place already," Jim teases, waggling his eyebrows playfully at Spock who frowns at him.

 

"There's no bed, Jim," Spock points out and Jim snorts. That's never been a problem for either of them.

 

"There wasn't a bed in the turbolift on the way to Alpha Centauri XII," Jim drawls. Spock flushes at the memory and Jim whoops, triumphant when Spock starts to work on the buttons of his shirt.

 

The kitchen counter isn't a bed either, but it serves its purpose.

 

* * *

 

 "This isn't our first shared property," Spock says later. He's sitting on the kitchen counter, legs still loosely wrapped around Jim's waist and Jim wonders vaguely if Spock's ass will make a mark on the kitchen counter for guests to see. Spock hears him through the bond and he gives Jim a mental slap that sends all thoughts of sex scattering to the back of Jim’s mind.

 

"If you mean the Entperise then yeah I guess," Jim says. He kisses Spock's neck apologetically, right on the little green mark his teeth made, then bends down to retrieve his and Spock's shirts.

 

"I meant our house on New Vulcan," Spock corrects him and Jim snorts then immediately feels guilt lance through him.

 

They hadn't even been married back then. Hell they hadn't even been in a relationship, so when Jim found out that Old Spock had willed that he and Spock inherit his house, he'd nearly died from embarrassment. Jim knew about Old Spock and the Jim in Old Spock's universe; the mind meld in Delta Vega had shown him a bit of their relationship which had made things awkward for Jim for a bit. Who wanted to see another version of themselves making out with a version of someone they disliked? Of course Old Spock was probably expecting Jim to go date his first officer which was why he’d given them the house, and while it did happen, it was still embarrassing. It was like being told by your parent that you'd end up boning your childhood best friend.

 

They don't even use that house much. Jim's only been in it twice. The first when he'd visited Old Spock when he was still alive; the second a week after the funeral for Old Spock when he’d helped his Spock clear out some things of Old Spock. It feels weird to be inside that house; more so for Spock probably, but Spock stays there whenever he goes to New Vulcan. Neither of them want to sell it. Old Spock left traces of him in that house: a stain on the wooden dining table, an almost permanent dent on the armchair by the fireplace, a thin crack on one of the kitchen tiles that Jim guesses must have been made when Old Spock started using a cane.

 

"It is illogical to hold so much sentiment for this place," Spock had told Jim during their second visit, the two of them pressed against each other on the tiny bed in the guest room.

 

"We can always sell it," Jim had suggested but he hadn't meant it and Spock had never followed up on his suggestion.

 

It's technically theirs but it's still Old Spock's so Jim doesn't count that house as their property.

 

This one. This is theirs. Jim wants to leave his own marks here, his and Spock's, little reminders that this is their place, that Jim somehow made it this far.

 

Jim doesn't remember every place he lived in. He remembers the farm in Iowa best because he spent his formative years there. It's after Tarsus IV that he started living in different places, switching from one home to the other, trying to get farther and farther away from everything that connected him to that planet. They blur together in his mind and Jim doesn't bother trying to pick them apart because they were all the same. He does remember the dorm he'd stayed in with Bones, the way it had always seemed to smell faintly of sweat and how Bones would try to cover it up with antiseptic.

 

It's the Enterprise he'll never forget. His captain's quarters, his Starfleet issue bed, his personal replicator which he'd modified to trick Bones into thinking that he was sticking to the diet he'd put on Jim. He remembers the shared bathroom and the many times he'd accidentally used Spock's toothbrush instead of his. He can recall the slightly disgusted look on Spock's face whenever he walked in to find his toothbrush in Jim's mouth, the little surprised huff he made whenever Jim pressed him against the sink, thumbs digging into the soft skin of his hips.

 

But the Enterprise isn't his home anymore. It's been almost a year since the five year mission and Jim misses it every day. He isn't the captain of the Enterprise anymore. He took the Admiral position based in San Francisco and while Jim misses constantly being out in space he did it for Spock. Shortly after Sarek's health began to detoriate, Spock had taken over Sarek's position as Vulcan Ambassador to Earth which clashed with his duties to Starfleet, and for Jim, there wasn’t much of a choice.

 

It wouldn't be the same anyway. His ship—the original Enterprise—was destroyed beyond repair during their last mission. Sulu's captain of his own ship now, Chekov's navigator of a different ship, Uhurua's teaching linguistics at a university in New York, Scotty and Keenser opened up their own engineering shop in his hometown, and Bones doesn't want to step foot in a starship again especially since he's just started to get on good terms with his daughter.

 

It's not the same and it wouldn't be the Enterprise without his crew. Plus there was always some part of him that knew he would never sit in that captain's chair forever, a thought that had been planted in his mind the moment people started comparing his captaincy to his father’s.

 

He can handle losing the Enterprise but he can't handle losing Spock. Spock is always his first priority. When he'd told Jim that he needed to take over his father's place, Jim knew that it was relinquish his chair and go with Spock or stay as captain and be miserable forever. He'd signed that contract the moment he grabbed Spock's hand in the observatory and told him to marry him. Maybe even before that. Maybe he'd signed it when he'd saved Spock from dying in that volcano, Starfleet be damned.

 

Jim wrote vows and one of those is making Spock feel at home as much as possible. Spock's already lost his home twice: first his planet, next the Enterprise. And Jim's not an idiot. He's been in Spock's mind and he knows that Spock's never felt completely at home anywhere. Always the odd one out, too human for Vulcans, too Vulcan for humans.

 

So Jim gave him this. A place for Spock to feel safe and at home.

 

* * *

 

 It doesn't take long before they're arguing about the furniture.

 

Jim doesn't know shit about buying furniture and apparently neither does Spock because Vulcans often just use the ones their ancestors handed to them and little of those exist now because of Vulcan's destruction. He probably should have bought a fully furnished house but none of the other choices were close enough to Starfleet and none of them felt right.

 

"It appears that we cannot do this alone," Spock says and Jim gives in because if Spock's admitting to not being able to do something, then it really does mean that they need help.

 

"You have friends, you idiot," is the first thing Uhura says when she finally picks up the phone. "Friends help each other move all the time."

 

She isn't Jim's first choice. It's Sulu who would do the job best because Sulu's always been the most creative among them, and Jim doesn't doubt that he'd probably added interior design to his list of hobbies when they were doing the five year mission. But he's not available so Jim sent the text to Uhura instead because Uhura might also not know shit about buying furniture but she's the most put together person Jim knows aside from Spock.

 

They pick her up from the station the next morning. She kisses Spock on the cheek by way of greeting then playfully smacks Jim on the shoulder.

 

"I can't believe you two actually need me for this," Uhura teases and Jim huffs because it does sound a bit ridiculous. Buying furniture either isn't actually that hard and Jim and Spock just don't have any domestic skills or television lied. Jim chooses to believe the latter. "I usually just look on the internet for ideas. Pinterest or you know, _IKEA_. Have you guys ever stepped foot in the IKEA near the academy?"

 

Jim's eyes meet Spock's through the rearview mirror. _Don't_ , Spock says through the bond and Jim replies with, _Of course I'm not going to tell her_.

 

But Nyota Uhura is a master at all forms of communication so she manages to pull out the story from them just by looking at their faces. She laughs.  "Okay but how did you two manage to get banned from IKEA???"

 

"We were looking at mattresses—"

 

"And we—" Spock raises an eyebrow at him but Jim doesn't back down. "Hey, you were involved as well! Anyway, we lied down on a mattress to test it and we got carried away and made out."

 

"Oh my God in Ikea?"

 

"In IKEA," Spock confirms, his ears turning an interesting shade of green.

 

"And some other places as well," Jim says. He shrugs at the warning glare Spock shoots him. "Well, babe, we didn't get banned in those places but we did do a lot of kissing after I got annoyed at looking at chairs." To Uhura he adds, "It's how I apologize when I'm being a dick."

 

"True love," Uhurua says sarcastically but the smile on her face betrays her.

 

She immediately observes the house’s layout when they get there, moving from one room to the other with a mini Padd in one hand. “What’s this room for?” she asks when they reach the second bedroom. Jim shrugs and says, “Turn it into a guest room, maybe?”

 

“You could always turn it into a children’s bedroom,” Uhura suggests and Jim nearly chokes on his own spit while Spock freezes at his side.

 

“Okaaaaaaay one step at a time, we haven’t even finished furnishing this house yet!” Jim yelps. It’s not like the thought of adopting hasn’t crossed his mind once or twice but that’s just an option in his mental list of adult things to do. That’s something he really ought to discuss with Spock. Jim has a feeling Spock would nerve pinch him if Jim suddenly showed up one day with a surprise baby.

 

Uhura snorts. “I was just kidding, Jim. You can barely even take care of yourself.”

 

“Very funny. I bought a house. That counts as being able to take care of myself.”

 

She pulls up a catalog later, making choosing easier for both of them. They get it done in fifteen minute which makes Jim feel both extremely grateful and also rather pathetic because it didn’t seem to be that hard. He looks at Spock who’s also frowning at the catalog, seemingly displeased with himself. Jim strokes the back of his hand and Spock turns his palm up, letting Jim lace their fingers together. He catches Uhura watching them.

 

“True love,” she mouths, not quite joking.

 

Jim grins. Because yeah. That’s one way to call it.

 

* * *

 

It’s fully furnished a few weeks later. Jim flops down the bed once the last of his clothes have been kept away, flinging one arm over his eyes as he releases a relieved sigh. He feels the mattress dip underneath Spock’s weight and Jim’s hands immediately search for him, pulling him down until their legs are tangled together. Jim opens his eyes and sees Spock watching him affectionately.

 

“Well?” he cups Spock’s ear, fingers gently tracing the shell of it. Underneath his palm, he feels Spock’s twitch as he tries to suppress a smile. “Do you like it?”

 

Spock answers by kissing him. His mouth is soft against Jim’s and Jim deepens the kiss until he can taste Spock.

 

“You make me very happy, Jim,” Spock tells him when Jim releases him and the smile on his face settles in Jim’s mind, another memory to keep.

 

“Let’s do what we weren’t able to do in IKEA,” he whispers in Spock’s ear and Spock lets out a laugh.

 

 

 


End file.
